


in order to win

by wrenkos



Series: our thoughts are ours alone (ndrv3 character studies) [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Introspection, Past Character Death, Spoilers, literally everybody is there but they're just briefly mentioned so it doesn't really. count
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-13 16:54:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12988386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrenkos/pseuds/wrenkos
Summary: NDRV3 SPOILERSHe stares at the now-blank screen and realizes that this is the proof that his kingdom had fallen, and even though he is a king, he is a king to none.





	in order to win

It was always so easy to take certain things for granted.

Kokichi Ouma realized the moment he fell out of the locker that, one, his cape was missing, and that two, his hat was missing. Wearing those two items was something he had grown accustomed to at DICE - the cape meant he was a leader, and the hat was just the cherry on top. It was, essentially, the icing on the cake to put him apart from the others. Almost like a crown of sorts. 

And he had fallen out of the locker in the outfit his subordinates - family, really - had worn. As if he had been stripped from his title of a leader, and that was the proof.

Something was very wrong here, and he really didn’t want to think about it at that moment. He would rather try to find out where he was, because this looked like a classroom but it certainly wasn't his school. 

He snapped out of his thoughts (which, honestly, he was thankful for) when the locker next to him landed with a loud ‘clang’, and he thought, that was definitely not the sound a human made. 

Well, this was getting off to a great start, wasn't it? 

He laughed and laughed while asking the robot - Kiibo, he had introduced himself, but Ouma decided Kiiboy or Kiibo-chan sounded better - questions that the robot clearly didn’t want to be asked, and chased him around the room like he didn’t have a care in the world. He jumped over the desks and over the tables with a sing-song voice like it was something he did every day.

He might of, he reasoned, but that wasn’t the point right now. This certainly wasn’t jail (and it wasn’t like he had been there before!) and there were people to trick and people to prank. Starting with this robot.

Deep down, he thought that this was quite the bizarre situation, and even deeper down he thought why that was, and down down down, in the very depths of his being, his heart was being gnawed at by the worry of what had happened to everyone at DICE. 

He tried to pay no mind to the last part, however. 

Two people walked in - a boy with a hat and a girl wearing musical key pins - and Ouma stopped chasing the robot for one moment in their direction at the door. And turned back around, figuring that they would introduce themselves soon enough, and also that the robot had also stopped for a split second - which gave him the advantage to catch up, and resumed the chasing.

“You stopped, you stopped~!” he sang, “Hey, hey, let me touch your body! Do robots have dicks?”

Kiibo-chan's attention turned back to him, almost in alarm as if he had forgotten he was there. (To which he wanted to say, 'no fair!) "P-Please stop!”

He, of course, ignored him and continued to bother. “So, so, do you have a rocket launcher? Maybe laserbeam hands? Or laserbeam eyes?? Hey, hey! Show me, come _oooon!!”_

The duo had eventually stopped him (and then whined, 'you guys are no fun!’) and then, as common courtesy demanded, introductions were in order.

“I’m Kokichi Ouma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader!” he grinned wide, after Akamatsu-chan had introduced herself, “It’s a suuuper secret organization, and it has over 10, 000 members!”

Saihara-chan had frowned and put a hand over his face in a thoughtful expression - to which Ouma thought, detectives always looked pretty cool, “Over 10, 000 members? I haven’t heard of such an organization…”

And he had laughed, laughed, laughed, and continued spinning his web of lies and acted like he didn’t have a care in the world. They didn’t have any concrete proof to refute him, anyways, right? They wouldn’t find any. No way, no siree, absolutely not a possibility.

They most certainly wouldn’t find out that he had chased the robot around to let out nervous energy from his train of thought, they most certainly wouldn’t find out that he usually wore a different outfit fit for a leader, and they most certainly wouldn’t find out that he was worried, worried about everybody and worried where he was and what to do.

But he laughed and lied time and time again to their faces, because they didn’t need to know that, because he needed to be the evil antagonist, the trickster, the closest he could get to being the glamorous phantom thief he wanted to be of whatever story he had just been thrown into. Because that was what his family would do, that was what their code was to do, that was what their dream was to do.

And that was what he was definitely going to do.

* * *

When he was alone in the afternoon in his designated room was when his act fell apart and he paced and paced and paced the room. None of the people thus far had shown their true colors. To be expected.

Notable things: Akamatsu-chan seemed to be acting as the leader, the tunnel was a fraud that they had spent way too much time on, Gokuhara-chan was super super strong, Kiiboy was really fun to prank, Iruma-chan would basically do anything if he raised his voice or spoke in a mocking tone, and Harukawa-chan was definitely, definitely lying! (About what, he didn’t know or why, but he had an inkling, however small it may be, of what it was and how to find out, but that was for later.)

But they had all fallen for their act (who wouldn’t? He was Kokichi Ouma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader of Evil, after all,) so that was a victory in his book. The pranks would have to come later, though, because the thought of a killing game just was something that was so, so utterly wrong.

Ah - that’s right. He didn’t come here to pace, he came here to investigate. His room, obviously, was one of the more important places to check: it was a private place, and, assuming that he had the same layout as all the other students, it meant learning what materials they all had from the get-go. Also assuming they all got the same welcome package. Who knows, maybe it was customized? 

The room contained a bed that he sat down on and patted a few times (it was actually quite comfortable), a table with a lamp and some empty notebooks in the storage, a monitor, an empty shelf, a bathroom with the essentials, and a closet.

...And a closet.

He stared at it a good five seconds.

A closet held clothing. That was a given, and since the robot bear (not the human robot) had said they would be provided uniforms, that must mean there was spare clothing in there.

He tapped his fingers against his thigh, wanting to laugh at the situation - Kokichi Ouma? Nervous about a closet that didn’t regard his sexuality but rather clothing instead? Impossible!

And yet, here he was. Who would have thought?

If, he deduced, there was his cape and hat in it, then that would mean he still was a leader, symbolically, but if there wasn’t?

The tapping got faster and faster and he thought, if it wasn’t there then the mastermind was a huge piece of crap who should really go and eat dirt for breakfast lunch and dinner, and if it wasn’t there then there was something wrong and he really didn’t want to think about it, even if those little intrusive thoughts that he really wished would just shut up sometimes were thinking about it already. And generating ideas he didn’t want to elaborate on, to boot.

But it was there, then that would be a huge relief to him, right? It'd be like finding something you thought you lost for two days: you'd forget you lost it a while later. It'd be rewarding. 

It was like Schrödingers cape. And hat. 

Those thoughts in mind, he took one step, two steps, and then he was directly in front of it.

He opened the closet door.

To which he found, white, black, checkered with buttons - the bandana, the uniform.

And no cape, and no hat.

He stood smiling, putting on a mask even though there was nobody other than him in the room, and thought that something was very, very wrong.

* * *

He woke up the next day before the good morning announcement he didn’t know would play, but found that restful sleep had gotten to him yet again. Honestly, it didn’t help the shadows under his eyes in any way, shape, or form, but that night the question in his head was repeated over and over and over with dozens of solutions thought but never really answered.

He splashed cold water on his face, changed, and walked out of the room with a smile.

Because nobody was allowed to know how helpless he felt.

* * *

He had sat in the dining hall, and when Toujou-chan had asked him what he wanted for breakfast - japanese or western - and he had settled for the ladder. Pancakes were nice, he decided, and so was tea.

He thought, tea breaks with everybody was mandatory, but he wonders, how will he have tea with nine of the (assumedly) dead?

Students eventually began to enter the room, and he ate the pancakes, noting the smiles made with blueberries (that made it easier to act for him). They also tasted delicious - he expected nothing less from the Ultimate Maid, though, but she certainly lived up to the title.

He eventually finished eating, placed the now empty plate in the sink, sang his thanks to Toujou-chan in a carefree tone, and then sat back down and watched the others slowly flood in.

More things to note, one - the people who woke up before the announcement were Toujou-chan, Harukawa-chan, Shinguuji-chan, Yonaga-chan, Chabashira-chan, and Hoshi. (Hoshi-chan sounded so, so weird, he decided that Hoshi would just be called Hoshi and would be an exception to his rule). And two, somehow Shinguuji-chan ate with his mask on, and he was sure he would find an answer if he asked, but he didn’t want an infodump at the moment, so he kept his mouth shut and his smile in place.

Eventually, all the students arrived, and so did Monokuma.

* * *

The First Blood Perk was introduced and his blood had ran cold.

It made sense, and to be completely honest, he had expected something like this to be put into order, but not so soon. If this was a killing game, it made sense to use something to force their hands and set the game in motion. But he wouldn’t kill. That was wrong.

He kept the smile plastered on his face as he thought, and realized that the others might not think the same thing.

* * *

A day passed, and he couldn't help but feel the feeling of insecurity somewhere in his chest.

But there was relief somewhere in there, too, because if something had happened to make him fall as leader, than perhaps everybody was in heaven, where they deserved to go? Because this was a killing game, and he knew that something had to happen to them in order for him to be put into a game. And heaven was where they were definitely going to go - they were definitely going to prank heaven, together. And if everybody was waiting for him, the leader, in heaven with his hat and his cape, then if somebody killed somebody else and tried to escape he would die and then see them again, right?

Right?

The smile was kept plastered on. 

* * *

He had sat in his room, on his bed, staring at the whiteboard he had rolled into his room. Photos of everybody, and who he thought would kill in the hour they had left.

The music blasting through the monitor really wasn’t helping him think --

\-- and then it stopped, and so did he.

* * *

The smile stayed right where it was when he ran to the library. He put his hands behind his head and acted like he didn’t care, but in reality, he did, because somebody was dead dead dead in the library and at the moment, he didn’t know who.

He spotted Kiiboy, Hoshi, Toujou-chan, Shinguuji-chan, Iruma-chan and Shirogane-chan on his way over, and thought, _ah,_ so they’re alive. That left nine more people who could be dead.

Perhaps it was Momota-chan who was dead, because he was so loud and annoying? Or maybe Yumeno-chan, because she was the smallest besides Hoshi? Or even Harukawa-chan, since she was so quiet and aloof?

He didn’t like these thoughts. His walking speed got faster, faster, as he walked down the stairs.

* * *

He stared at Amami-chan’s cold, dead body, and thought - how had everybody been killed, if they were dead and in heaven?

He let the tears run loose and exaggerated - crocodile tears - and proclaimed that his dear, darling, dearest Amami-chan was now dead.

Some other people dear to his heart are in an unknown state right now, he had thought to himself. 

Ah, but now even if Amami-chan was the Ultimate Mind Reader than he was dead and Ouma didn't really have to worry about it anymore, huh?

* * *

Akamatsu-chan’s already dead body is crushed, and he thought, perhaps everybody died that way instead.

* * *

He thinks the next morning, did everybody die being crushed or did everybody die by a ball falling on their head?

He smiles to himself, and it’s a lie, an act, and he knows it. But he always does.

Nobody else knows, he tells himself.

He opens his closet to reach for a clean uniform, and chants and chants to himself, nobody else knows.

Nobody else knows and nobody else will figure out.

Right?

* * *

Some more labs are opened. He wonders, Akamatsu-chan’s lab opened and she died! Maybe Mom will die this time (he decided, that everybody at DICE would like Mom, because she likes tea and she’s so motherly that he decided to call her Mom instead of Toujou-chan, but she doesn’t like pranks or generally joking around so she can’t join, unfortunately), or maybe Hoshi will die this time, or maybe it’ll be Gokuhara-chan, or maybe Yumeno-chan, or even Harukawa-chan?

He notes that Harukawa-chan didn’t let anybody in. He laughs, and tells Saihara-chan to not force a girl to do anything she doesn't want to do.

Inside, he thinks, she’s a liar. And this is definite proof.

* * *

He goes to the casino with Shinguuji-chan, Momota-chan, Iruma-chan, Saihara-chan and Hoshi because that seemed like a fun thing to do to keep his mind off of things.

He laughs at Momota-chan’s gambling, and ‘ohs’ and ‘ahs’ at Hoshi’s skill.

He is reminded that everybody at DICE would have liked this casino, since you can do oh-so-much to prank people in casinos. You could even do robbery and fraud!

He is smiling, and he is laughing, but he wants to kick himself for showing up because he doesn’t know what has become of everybody.

He doesn't let it show. 

* * *

He stares at the table at the tablet splattered with color that sits upon it.

That was not there when he went to bed last night.

He thinks to himself, ah, yes, maybe he finally started hallucinating? Or maybe he’s been hallucinating it hasn’t been there the entire time, and now he’s finally out of the hallucination?

It’s probably a motive, he thinks.

His fingers twitch.

He figures that everybody else must have received the same thing, but at that moment he doesn’t care, because this could hold information on how to end the game, how to get out or even where they were.

A video begins to play.

The words _Kokichi Ouma - Ultimate Supreme Leader_ light up the screen, and all he can do is stare.

* * *

Numb.

Numb, numb, numb, numb.

He looks at the screen - it’s off now, and it’s long finished by now. He picks it up, up off the desk, and falls onto his bed.

He replays the video. He hears the words in his ears and sees the footage on the screen, and the memories of remembering come back into his head and he bites his lip.

He thinks, Mom and the others won’t mind if he shows up late to breakfast, since right now he doesn’t feel like eating anything and the announcement hasn’t even gone off.

He then thinks, everybody at DICE isn’t dead?

He thinks, that should be a good thing.

But they’re suffering, and he can’t see it through the masks in the video but he knows the pain must be there, because he’s watching it and he’s feeling pain, and they all were like him, and they all had healed their wounds together. The old wounds hadn’t been reopened, he was sure, but new ones had now been sprung.

He replays the footage again.

Somewhere in his mind, it clicks.

He doesn’t have his cape or hat because that is what makes him a leader.

And he is no longer a leader because his kingdom is gone.

He stares at the now-blank screen and realizes, that this is the proof that his kingdom had fallen, and even though he is a king, he is a king to none.

And he cannot reclaim his leadership, because that would require getting out of here which required killing which was against the code.

It’s game set, check, and mate. The unknown mastermind has won.

He curls and uncurls his hands into fists.

But he tells himself he will walk out there with a smile, because these people cannot know that he is no longer a king.

They cannot know. 

They  _will not_ know. 

They don't. 

* * *

The next day, he rewatches the video over and over and over, and thinks that if there was a “times played” count it would be in the forties.

* * *

He decides, he cannot be a king or a ruler, but he can be a victor.

The mastermind has won. That is evident.

He thinks, so in order to win himself, he has to be the mastermind, and end the game and win.

He is not the mastermind, and he doesn't know who is yet, but he will make himself the mastermind instead. In order to win.

In order to win.

In his head, the chess board resets itself.

He thinks, it's time for a rematch. 

He will turn the odds in his favor this time - it’s not mastermind versus participant, it’s mastermind versus mastermind, and he will win this game.

He will win this game.

* * *

He thinks of a plan, and he laughs, and he laughs, and he laughs.

This time, it isn’t in a mocking manner, and it isn’t in a playful manner, either, this time it’s twisted, it’s ugly, and it’s everything a mastermind should be.

Because if he’s the mastermind, he is a winner.

And if he is a winner in this world, then the world is his.

The world is his.

That’s it, isn’t it?

He uncaps the marker, and begins to write the letters to a message he won’t finish until later.

The others won’t know the end result until it is the end result, but he thinks, he is the only one who knows the end result beforehand.

He counts this as his first victory. 

It's small, but it's something.

* * *

He writes once more.  

He laughs, and he laughs, and he laughs, because he pictures the facial expressions of the mastermind, and of everybody else.

Horror, maybe? Surprise? Shock? Perhaps somebody will scream? Who will even find it? 

(In his head, he knows that he can deduce the different reactions from everybody. He wonders who will discover it - Saihara-chan, Yumeno-chan, Momota-chan, Shirogane-chan, Kiiboy, or Harukawa-chan?)

He thinks, and he writes the last letter, that he’ll sneak into the kitchen and hide to listen into them.

The text is complete.

_This world is mine. Kokichi Ouma._

**Author's Note:**

> mmmm ouma has,, a really interesting personality to write and I really don't think I did him justice in this. this was just a bunch of hcs shoved together into a 3k fic hdkshhs


End file.
